The invention relates to a multiple player video poker game, and more particularly to a multiple player video poker game including a bonus round feature for which multiple players have the opportunity to qualify.
Conventional video draw poker is a single player game in which the player does not play against a dealer or other players, but rather merely tries to achieve the highest possible ranking poker hand.
After an initial deal of five cards, the player is allowed to discard and replace unwanted cards with replacement cards. Video poker games use poker hand rankings to determine winning combinations and a pay table is used to determine the amount awarded to the player for achieving a winning combination.
The conventional winning poker hand rankings that are used in video poker in order from highest to lowest are: Royal Flush, Straight Flush, Four of a Kind, Full House, Flush, Straight, Three of a Kind, Two Pair and a Pair of Jacks or better. Any hand having less than a Pair of Jacks or better is a losing hand. These winning poker hand rankings are used in the Jacks or Better draw poker format as well as many of the other draw poker formats.
Multiple hand video poker allows the player to play multiple hands of video poker at the same time. Typically, the player is dealt two or more starting hands with each starting hand having the same cards. The player is allowed to discard unwanted cards and replacement cards are provided for the discarded cards to form the final poker hands. The player may discard the same cards from each starting hand or the player may discard different cards from each starting hand. Each of the final poker hands are compared to a pay table to determine winning and losing hands and the player receives a payout based on the amount of his wager for each winning hand. Typical multiple hand poker games come in three, five, ten, twenty, twenty-five, fifty and one hundred hand poker formats. Multiple hand poker is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,823,873 and 6,517,074, the disclosure of each is herein incorporated by this reference.
Video poker as a draw poker game using the Jacks or
Better draw poker format has been played in gaming casinos for many years. Variations of video draw poker have evolved and include video draw poker using Jokers as wild cards and video draw poker using Deuces (or even other cards, such as Sevens) as wild cards. Most of the more recent modifications to video involve the use of different draw poker formats such as Bonus Poker, Double Bonus Poker, Double-Double Bonus Poker and even Triple Bonus Poker. Different draw poker formats involve changes to the pay table and often involve using different poker hand rankings as winning hand combinations.
Many gaming casinos set up a group of video poker machines in a common location such as a game carousel so that a plurality of players can play in adjacent seating positions. Often an overhead display area is provided for these video poker machines so that information regarding the play of the video poker games can be shown to the group of players.
Communal video poker games are becoming popular. A typical communal game involves two or more video poker players playing against each either during the basic video poker game or in a bonus round played in conjunction with the primary video poker game.
For example, U.S. Published Patent Application 2005/0101384 (Parham) discloses a multiple player gaming method in which each player plays his own gaming machine and attempts to qualify for a secondary bonus game round. A first player qualifies for the secondary round by achieving a predetermined outcome on his gaming machine. Once the first player has qualified, a time period begins during which other players may also qualify for the secondary game round. Each player qualifies for the secondary game by achieving a predetermined outcome on his gaming machine.
When the time period for qualifying has closed, all qualified players then participate in the secondary bonus game round during which awards are made for achieving winning outcomes. The size of the award increases as more players qualify and each qualifying player receives an award during the secondary bonus game round. The disclosure of U.S. Published Patent Application 2005/0101384 is incorporated herein by this reference.
The present invention provides a multiple player video poker game in which each player plays a primary video poker game and may make an additional wager to earn entries into a bonus round of play which is played in a communal manner with other players who have also earned entries into the bonus round of play.